1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to electronic commerce. In particular, the present invention relates to technology that facilitates data interchange between disparate application systems via a communications network.
2. Background Information
Advances in communications technologies have allowed businesses to exchange data electronically for decades in what is now commonly referred to as electronic commerce. There have been a number of approaches to defining standards for data exchange in electronic commerce applications. One of the earliest approaches to standardization is Electronic Data Interchange (EDI). EDI refers to transactions that are exchanged between known trading partners using mutually agreed upon data security, formatting, and transmission standards, such as those developed by the American National Standards Institute (ANSI) Accredited Standards Committee (ASC) X12 in 1989. An international standard, the Electronic Data Interchange for Administration, Commerce, and Transport (EDIFACT), was developed under the auspices of the United Nations and later adopted by ISO in September, 1987. The Federal Acquisition Computer Network (FACNET) is an example of an EDI system authorized by the Federal Acquisition Streamlining Act of 1994, 10 USC §2304(g), and is used to exchange acquisition information between the federal government and private-sector vendors.
Despite its success, the use of EDI to support today's electronic commerce applications has its limitations. EDI transactions use a highly structured and inflexible data format. Since most companies run proprietary business application systems that either do not or cannot use this same standard format for their internal data, both the initiating and receiving companies must each translate the structured data formats into their own internal data formats. Since internal data formats are often modified to accommodate changing business requirements, keeping the translation software up-to-date is not a trivial task.
Another limitation is that the data interchange cannot be performed in real-time. Rather, the EDI transaction must be electronically transported from one computer enterprise to another where the data is then translated or re-entered into a receiving application system before use. However, today's cross-enterprise computer systems often require that the data from the initiating company feed directly into the application system of the recipient company. This presents a problem in that the content and format of the EDI transactions are unlikely to be 100% compatible between the initiator and the recipient.
As an example, state of the art Enterprise Requirements Planning (ERP) systems such as the SAP system are very adept at driving uniform transactions within a company. However, the SAP system is much less adept at communication to external ERP systems. Compatibility issues can occur even when two companies use the same SAP system because it is very likely that the two SAP systems are configured differently. Hence, manual data mapping and translation may be required.
Information technology groups are struggling with data mapping and translation issues. First, business processes to handle transactions with data mapping issues are often poorly defined. Also, many application systems lack mechanisms to resolve data mapping issues once the transaction reaches their domain, or those mechanisms if they do exist are inadequate (e.g., by failing to transmit a clear error report to the initiator). What is needed, therefore, is a new approach to allow companies to develop intelligent electronic interfaces that comprehend the data mapping and translation requirements between disparate application systems.